The Bolshevik Revolution occurred on 7 November 1917 (old calendar 25 October) and established a new republic: Soviet Russia. The Bolsheviks were radical socialists led by Vladimir Lenin (1870 to 1924), whose goal was a fairer society where workers and peasants were not exploited by wealthy capitalists. Following the abdication of Tsar Nicholas II (reign 1894 to 1917) on 2 March and the inability of the Provisional Government to deal with a series of crises through the summer of 1917, the Bolsheviks seized power by force, using the Red Guards militia. The Provisional Government was dissolved, and the tsar and his family were murdered. Workers were given more rights and peasants given their own land to work, Russia withdrew from WWI, and only one party was permitted – the Communist Party, as the Bolsheviks now called themselves.

The were several reasons why the Bolsheviks appealed to many people within the Russian Empire. The Bolsheviks:

The reason the Bolsheviks could take power was because they made promises to solve Russia's many problems, problems which the current rulers seemed unable to tackle. The Provisional Government was established after the revolution in March 1917. The deeply unpopular tsar was obliged to abdicate on 2 March. A Provisional Government was formed of moderate and liberal ministers who had served in the tsar's assembly, the Duma. The idea was that this government was merely "provisional" because a general election would be called sooner rather than later to form a Constituent Assembly based on a genuinely popular vote. The Provisional Government, really a series of unstable coalitions, lacked legitimacy from the outset since nobody had voted for it. It did gain support, though, particularly amongst the middle classes, upper classes, and the Russian Orthodox Church (which benefited from a new separation of state and church). The government also had some successes, such as giving women the vote and resurrecting the jury system.

The Provisional Government considered it necessary for the First World War (1914 to 18) to end before a vote for the Constituent Assembly could take place; after all, millions of voters were fighting at the front. The problem was how or when or if at all to withdraw from the conflict, an issue that divided the government, political parties, and the general population. There were good arguments for staying in the war, such as treaty obligations, patriotic duty, and the possibility of receiving Western financial help, but the conflict had already caused over 2 million deaths and crippled the economy. Workers in Petrograd (St. Petersburg) marched in protest over the continuation of the war on 23 to 24 April.

The Provisional Government's popularity was already low because of its dithering, but it sank even further when, in mid-June, it backed a new offensive in the war, which resulted in yet another catastrophic defeat. This offensive had been backed by the prime minister, Alexander Kerensky (1881 to 1970).

Three groups had significant grievances against the government: industrial workers, farming peasants, and members of the armed forces. The working classes had reformed soviets (democratic worker councils) during the crisis of the spring of 1917. The soviets called for changes such as a reduction in working hours per day (8 hours was the ideal – a limitation already granted by the government to workers in ammunition factories), freedom to form unrestricted trade unions, greater safety at work, and a minimum wage. The soviets were angry at food shortages and rampant inflation. The soviets became a powerful voice of criticism against the action, or rather inaction, of the Provisional Government. Further, as the Petrograd Soviet controlled the garrison there, it was the Executive Committee of this organisation that really held the reins of power, even if the Provisional Government had formal or legal power. Indeed, Kerensky was himself vice-chairman of the Petrograd Soviet. This system has often been described as one of 'dual power', but it soon became an ineffective one. The soviets organised strikes across Russia throughout 1917, and these caused severe problems for the government, limiting industrial and arms production, and severely disrupting transport and food supplies. The soviets also created their own militia, and, after the government had disbanded the tsar's police force, these "became the only serious coercive force on the streets" (Hosking, 467).

A worker demonstration in Petrograd against certain capitalist ministers in the Provisional Government on 16 to 20 July ended in bloodshed and the death or injury of 400 of the demonstrators, an infamous incident known as the 'July Days'. The government blamed the Bolsheviks for the demonstrations and made many arrests. The soviets responded by greatly increasing the number of strikes. The summer of 1917 "witnessed 1,019 strikes involving 2,441,850 workers and employees" (Freeze, 284). Nevertheless, the soviets as yet did not call for a revolution as such, but rather change from within the government itself. Most workers, above all, feared a damaging civil war.

Peasants, too, were dissatisfied with the Provisional Government because it was not doing enough to modernise agriculture and redistribute imperial land and estates owned by the aristocracy. For many villagers, there was a chronic shortage of land they could work on for themselves. Other peasant grievances included the government's requisitioning of grain surpluses for the war effort. Peasants set up their own elected committees, which ignored the land committees set up by the government. The government's lack of effective action in rural areas led to peasant revolts through the summer of 1917, where land was seized, crops and the property of richer farmers were destroyed, and the richer farmers themselves were beaten or killed. The government seemed helpless to respond to this disruption, and both the production and distribution of foodstuffs went into decline, making the government even more unpopular in the cities.

By 1917, soldiers had formed their own soviets. Each army battalion of 250 men sent one delegate to their respective soviet. Soldiers had become increasingly radicalised through the infiltration of Bolsheviks amongst their ranks. The Petrograd Soviet had even declared (Order No. 1 and 2) that within the armed forces in Petrograd, soldier committees should take over decision-making, casting aside the traditional hierarchy of officer ranks. The soviet had also insisted that they approve all general orders given to these armed forces. When Order No. 1 and 2 were extended to the Russian army as a whole, the result was that discipline plummeted. The lack of loyalty to the state was made worse by the high losses in battle, the catastrophic defeats, and the lack of food becuase of the strikes and revolts affecting Russia's agriculture and transport system. Daily rations for soldiers were reduced from 4,000 to 2,000 calories a day. Desertions rocketed. As Lenin put it, the soldiers were rejecting traditional sources of authority and "voting with their feet" (Alan Wood, 56).

The Bolsheviks made a clear-cut promise that, if in power, they would immediately withdraw the country from WWI. Further, they promised that such a withdrawal would immediately boost the economy and help prices to fall. Peace would allow immediate elections for a Constituent Assembly. The promise of a withdrawal was not only given to gain popularity with the lower classes, but there was, too, an ideological justification. Lenin was well aware that a proletarian revolution would be resisted by the middle and upper classes, and so the Bolsheviks could not afford the distraction of WWI. As Lenin once brutally commented, the Russian "bourgeoisie has to be throttled and for that we need both hands free" (Beevor, 148). The Bolsheviks, like other revolutionaries, longed for a fairer socialist society where peasants and workers were not exploited by capitalists and aristocrats. Funding for the Bolsheviks' activities came from the German state, eager to destabilise its enemy from within, and through various illegal activities such as robbing state banks and post offices, activities which rival socialist groups baulked at.

Other socialist parties were much less clear on their policy regarding the war. Further, the Bolsheviks called for an immediate second revolution. Yes, the tsar was gone, but now the workers should take over, said Lenin. Other socialists like the Mensheviks (a rival faction of the Russian Social Democratic Labour Party or RSDLP) preferred more time between these two stages, but they talked of waiting years for this and supporting the present government in the meantime. Workers and peasants were increasingly impatient, and the Bolsheviks' promise of immediate action had great appeal.

Women, too, wanted equal rights and opportunities with men, and the Bolsheviks were one of the few revolutionary groups that promised to consider these demands. Lenin believed women, by being released from traditional roles in the home, could be added to the country's workforce. By 1917, the war and male conscription brought many more women into the workforce so that they accounted for around 40% of workers. Women were also active within the Bolshevik faction of the RSDLP. Nadezhda Krupskaya (1869 to 1939), the wife of Lenin, served as the accountant and secretary for the Bolsheviks and their newspaper Iskra from 1903 until 1917. Another key figure was Alexandra Kollontai (1872 to 1952), who was on the editorial board of the Bolshevik newspaper Woman Worker (Rabotnitsa). The Bolsheviks also made sure they appealed to various minority groups.

Lenin remained in exile in Finland during the February revolution, but he ensured the Bolsheviks in Russia maximised their popular appeal. The message was spread to workers that the Provisional Government was simply the old regime in disguise and was only interested in protecting the bourgeoisie. Those more moderate socialists who had involved themselves in the Provisional Government became discredited for their inaction over issues that concerned the working classes. From April, Lenin was promising 'Peace, Land, and Bread' for the masses, ideas encapsulated in his 'April Theses'. Bolshevik slogans like "All power to the soviets!" helped win even wider support from workers, although Lenin really meant ‘All power to the Bolshevik soviets'. Lenin deliberately instructed Bolshevik speakers not to waste time on complicated arguments, which the audience had no hope of following, but stick to simple slogans like "Land to the working people!" and "Nationalization of plants and factories!" (Beevor, 93).

Ironically, the Bolsheviks gained the means to stage a revolution thanks to the Provisional Government. The Kornilov Affair saw General Lavr Kornilov (1870 to 1918), head of Russia's armed forces, try to stage a right-wing coup in August. The attempt fell flat from a total lack of support, but to ensure this could not happen again, Kerensky armed the soviets as a possible government defence force. In addition, by September, the war was going so badly for Russia that Riga was lost, and even Petrograd seemed in imminent danger of the advancing German and Austrian armies. The Bolsheviks now controlled both the Petrograd and Moscow soviets, and so, too, their militias. Indeed, the Bolshevik Red Guards militia was actually formed from the Military Revolutionary Committee of the Petrograd Soviet (MRC), led by Leon Trotsky (1879 to 1940). The MRC had been created to defend Petrograd should the Provisional Government not move to the capital's defence if it were attacked by German armed forces.

Lenin, still in exile in Finland, believed it was now or never to stage a proletarian revolution. Lenin also believed that if Russia achieved a proletarian state, then other nations would soon follow suit, particularly Germany. After sending countless ineffective messages to get themselves in motion, Lenin finally arrived in Petrograd on 10 October and galvanised the Bolsheviks into action. Lenin warned: "History will not forgive us if we do not assume power now" (Suny, 134).

There remained some key figures, notably Grigory Zinoviev (1883 to 1936) and Lev Kamenev (1883 to 1936), who considered the risk too high and that a Bolshevik-led uprising would be crushed unless it included other socialist groups. Nevertheless, Lenin persuaded the majority, and the Bolshevik Central Committee voted 10:2 in favour of action. Trotsky urged for at least an appearance of the Bolsheviks having the full support of the soviets and suggested the coup be staged when the Congress of Soviets was to be held later in the month. This plan was agreed upon by Lenin. Crucially, by the last week of October, the Bolsheviks had command of an army, as here explained by Anthony Wood:

The Petrograd garrison had accepted the military revolutionary committee as their supreme authority; thousands of rifles were distributed to the Red Guards, and on 23 October the troops in the Peter-Paul fortress…were won over by a visit from Trotsky, a move which put a further 100,000 rifles at the Bolsheviks' disposal.

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The Bolsheviks' pretext for mobilisation was the government's announcement that the Petrograd garrison was to be moved out of the city. The Bolsheviks assumed this was in order to allow the government to take control of the soviet. Lenin decided to move first. The government realised what was happening and tried to shut down the offices of two Bolshevik newspapers and ordered the Aurora naval cruiser to leave the port. It was too late. The Aurora was already under the sway of the MRC. The Mensheviks and Social Revolutionaries, also aware of what was underway, tried and failed to persuade Kerensky that only an immediate withdrawal from WWI and a promise of land reforms would avoid a revolution.

The Aurora fired a blank shot at the Winter Palace, seat of the Provisional Government, on 7 November 1917, and this was the signal for the Bolshevik Red Guards militia to take over the government. The Bolsheviks took over the telegraph offices, railway stations, key bridges, the central bank, and the Tauride Palace. While members of the Provisional Government sheltered in the Winter Palace, Kerensky, assisted by members of the US Embassy, fled Petrograd by car and attempted to call troops from the Northern Front, but this was not successful. In the end, it was an almost bloodless coup, although some cadets and a women's battalion put up a half-hearted and failed defence of the Winter Palace. Key members of the Provisional Government were arrested.

Lenin declared a new soviet government would be formed. All this bypassed the soviets, who were holding their Second Congress at the time. The Bolshevik delegates were in a minority at this conference, but the Mensheviks, the largest other group, walked out in protest at the coup. The remaining delegates backed the revolution. The generals in the army, having lost faith in the Provisional Government, did next to nothing. Officer cadets in Petrograd attempted to stage a fightback, but this was crushed. A unit of government-loyal Cossacks was defeated outside the capital. Through November, a lingering resistance in Moscow was eradicated when the Kremlin was shelled. Most large cities had already recognised that the soviets were in power, although in many, and in smaller provincial towns, the Bolsheviks had to share power with other socialist groups. Bolshevik influence "in both the Russian countryside and non-Russian areas remained small" (Shukman, 136).

The Bolsheviks had effectively launched an entirely opportunistic revolution and got away with it. "It was by no means a smooth, surgically executed operation", but it was also true that "it was the Bolsheviks who most clearly reflected, voiced and implemented the will of the revolutionary-minded workers and peasants" (Alan Wood, 62).

Lenin became the new head of the state, negotiated a ceasefire with Germany in December 1917, and formally withdrew Russia from WWI with the Treaty of Brest-Litovsk, signed on 3 March 1918. In November 1917, Lenin, the ‘chairman', formed a temporary Workers' and Peasants' Government where ministers were called ‘commissars'. A plethora of decrees was issued, some within 24 hours of the coup. The Land Decree effectively confiscated all landlords' land (crown-, church-, and gentry-owned) and redistributed it to peasants who were now entitled to as large a plot as they could work without the need of hired labourers. Bolshevik propaganda went into overdrive with increased print runs of newspapers and pamphlets extolling the virtues of the Bolshevik Revolution, which were distributed across Russia. Rival socialist parties were harassed to the point of extinction.

Elections for a Constituent Assembly were held in January 1918, but then Lenin ordered his Red Guards to close it down when it was revealed that the Bolsheviks had won only a quarter of the vote. Lenin was able to keep the soviets at least nominally on board with his revolution, since they had already voted to create the Sovnarkom, the Council of People's Commissars. Lenin was the head of this council, and he greatly increased his popularity by declaring the long-sought-for 8-hour maximum working day. Lenin also shrewdly issued a decree that workers would henceforth control all aspects of production. The right wing of Russian politics – reactionaries, aristocrats, and some middle classes – resisted the Bolshevik takeover and were aided by foreign powers keen to see Russia rejoin WWI; thus, the Russian Civil War broke out. The Bolsheviks, now calling themselves the Communist Party, eventually came out as the victors. In 1922, the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics (USSR) was declared. The Bolshevik Revolution, then, had "ushered in a new era in the history of mankind, the era of Socialism, which would in turn develop into full Communism" (Alan Wood, 64).